Diary of a Project Manager: How I screwed my last project?

All Rights Reserved
Roy Buyuksimkesyan
Project Unmanager
Diary of a Project Manager
How I screwed my last
project?

All Rights Reserved www.logsign.com
Outline
•Who are we?
•What is a “project”?
•Reading my diary
•Lessons Learned
•Questions

Who are we?
•Only Unified Security Intelligence, Log
Management and Compliance SIEM Product
•Custom Technology and IP
•Founded in 2010, team of 30 people
•More than 400 trusted enterprise customers and
thousands of SMBs

What is a “project”
•More than 1 person
•Purpose/target
•Deadline
•Budget
•Stakeholders
•Success Criteria
A project should have

Reading Time
please take notes

Reading my diary
Today, my boss told me that, our salesperson sold a new project. I have been chosen as the
project manager! Yay! Dear diary, I cannot define how happy I’m! I’m literally flying over the
clouds. As a result of so much hardwork, I finally have that I can call my own! We will be 4 people
working on this. I don’t know what the project is about, I will know more tomorrow.
Day 1

Reading my diary
We are making an e-commerce web site. There will be many integrations with banks. We
did similar things before, I’m pretty sure it won’t be hard. Feature details are not yet clear.
Tomorrow we start coding. This way we will finish things that looks like clear quickly and we
might even deliver it early. That would be cool! Deadline is 3 months later, it’s just a web site
anyway
Day 3

Reading my diary
We made a meeting with the client. My very first meeting! They are very positive people, it’s
gonna be a great project. We talked about their requests, I learned what they wanted, and we
discussed many details. I opened up tasks and assigned to others. Infrastructure looks
solid, and we are pretty fast. We are waiting for designs. If we can keep up this pace, we can
finish it very early. In my opinion, what they want is not hard but looks easy. Oh diary,
everything started so well, everyone is so good, I have high hopes!
Day 7

Reading my diary
Still waiting on designs. There were some bureaucratic problems with bank integrations, it
takes some time for accounts to be authorised an so on. Some tasks took longer than we
expected and we lost some time on them. But everything still looks fine. Nothing that might
affect the deadline happened yet.
Day 15

Reading my diary
Designs just came as PSDs! Seriously!? We expected them as HTML! Customer insists
that they notified us about PSDs and we were OK. Liars! I remember, they said HTML, and
that’s how me made our plan. That was disappointing for us. I spent my whole weekend on turning
PSDs to HTMLs. I’m very tired now and tomorrow we will make our first demo. Bank
accounts are opened but we still did not receive integration documents.
Day 21

Reading my diary
Demo was not well but as this was the first demo, it was expected anyway. We made a list of
bugs and we will fix them. It looks like, we will spend some time to fix them. First month is
about to be over and we kinda late(ish) for the project. But we can still make it, I just need to
put a little bit more effort. This weekend I will be fixing those bugs. Bank integration documents
came very fast actually and we even started to code them. We will be finishing them this week.
Day 22

Reading my diary
Those banks… I’m trying to find the problems in their documents through e-mails.
Documents say you should do this, but guess what, that doesn’t work. It turns out, it was a mistake
and it cost us a week. We required to change a lot of things. Damn those stupid software
support! You are not writing good documentation and you cost us time and money! The guy who was
writing the bank integrations took a vacation. He’s gone for 2 weeks. 2 whole weeks… I was
not able to fix the bugs yet. Even if it’s buggy, I have to show a new demo, I will focus on banks
now.
Day 35

Reading my diary
Customer was a bit mad for the demo. Bugs were not fixed after so much time, etc, etc. I
tried to tell them that the misunderstanding about designs cost us a lot of time, but they did
not get it. I also tried to tell them that it was the problem with banks that caused the delay
for bug fixing. Customer told me that I was not alone, and asked why others did not fixed
those things. I was like, you know, shocked. Stupefied. Seriously man, it’s always me who is
working and they just do nothing. I will make them work this week end.
Day 40

Reading my diary
After a stressful two week, I’m very very tired (and a bit smelly) but we look like we finished a
lot of things. Only a couple of simple things left. There is still a month to go. We finished our
end of development. We solved problems with banks too! Yeah, unbelievable right? We even
implemented the design perfectly too. I’m pretty sure the customer will be delighted. Once I fixed
those smaller bugs too, we will finish this project, earlier than expected. I’m tired but I guess
my promotion is on the horizon now. Totally worth it!
Day 55

Reading my diary
I can’t believe they did not told this earlier! Really?! How is it possible that they didn’t say they
want 3D Secure Payment! What is the meaning of “we thought you would think”! I was so ready
to wrap it up, now I have to deal with this! It wasn’t something we discussed at all. We have
started to drown between things we thought they were simple. Now things we didn’t discuss
earlier started to come up as well. It was important for them. There were more bugs than we
anticipated. We had some serious issues that we hadn’t noticed earlier, they will take a lot of time.
Day 60

Reading my diary
Very though 2 weeks, but I think it’s OK now. I think we can still make it in the last 10
days. We are lost in details of tasks that we deemed simple. I’m so disappointed right now.
With a final push, I’m gonna finish this project and i will take a loong vacation. I’m now really
smelling, I need a good bath but so tired, so stressed, I guess I will sleep now. Take a shower, in
the morning? Maybe 10 more minutes of sleep?
Day 80

Reading my diary
My boss who found out that project was late was a bit made. Well, he is right. I told
him after 3 months that I had more things to do. He found it out yesterday, yelled at
me and so on. He might even fire me. My dreams for a promotion are evaporated right now. And I
also have this customer. Who will care if that button move two pixels right, really??!!
Day 100

Reading my diary
Finally, we fixed all the bugs. They liked the demo as well, we even move that button two pixels to
the right. A month late, but at least it’s over. It’s not so bad right? I mean, it could have been
worse. Tomorrow, there was some something called User Acceptance Test, project had to
pass test. Once we pass that too, we will gonna get paid and time to move to new projects! But now
I know, customer doesn’t know what he/she wants. I will be careful next time.
Day 120

Reading my diary
So, much, code. And, bad, code. I can’t even figure out why we did somethings. Everyone has moved
to other projects, and I’m all alone now :( I’m still trying to write documentation. It turns
out, our salesperson has sold documentation as well but did not bother to tell us. I’m not
even mentioning user training that we should provide to customers for three days. But documents
are the last things, once they are done, it’s over, for good now. I mean it. And I will take a
vacation, and I restarted to take regular showers too. Finally!!
Day 140

Reading my diary
I’m so glad that those lines are written from Bodrum my dear diary. Can you believe it? Finally,
I’m on that vacation, I told you about. It’s sunbath time! Yesterday we finally finished the
project but new change requests are waiting. But now it’s on maintenance phase at least.
We will get paid for these changes and that’s a good thing. If I knew it was this stressful, I
wouldn’t accept being a project manager in the first place. Everyone was so stressed, I was about
to fight with the client in the last weeks, I barely hold myself. But I like my job you know. I did
that … web site! Now, I’m gonna take a sip of my orange juice and look around for that “human” who
is so beautiful. Details, later my dear friend, later…
Day 170

Lessons Learned
•What we have learned from what we “read”
•When did the mistakes started to happen?
•What could have been done to prevent those?
•Was it successful, in the end?

Lessons Learned
• Day 1
• Project actually started when the
customer entered from the door
• I said yes, without knowing what
I would do
• Day 3
• Why start coding right away?
• I didn’t see integrations (things)
unrelated to me as “risks”
• I didn’t plan as well
Today, my boss told me that, our salesperson sold a new
project. I have been chosen as the project manager! Yay!
Dear diary, I cannot define how happy I’m! I’m literally flying
over the clouds. As a result of so much hardwork, I finally
have that I can call my own! We will be 4 people working on
this. I don’t know what the project is about, I will know
more tomorrow.
We are making an e-commerce web site. There will be many
integrations with banks. We did similar things before, I’m
pretty sure it won’t be hard. Feature details are not yet clear.
Tomorrow we start coding. This way we will finish things that
looks like clear quickly and we might even deliver it early. That
would be cool! Deadline is 3 months later, it’s just a web site
anyway

Lessons Learned
• Day 7
• I did not prepare a
Requirements Document. I
just took some notes and kept
them to myself
• I did not dig deep for things
that looked simple to me
• Day 15
• I did not calculate the delay
that will be caused by
unexpected things.
We made a meeting with the client. My very first meeting! They
are very positive people, it’s gonna be a great project. We talked about
their requests, I learned what they wanted, and we discussed many
details. I opened up tasks and assigned to others. Infrastructure
looks solid, and we are pretty fast. We are waiting for designs. If we
can keep up this pace, we can finish it very early. In my opinion, what
they want is not hard but looks easy. Oh diary, everything started
so well, everyone is so good, I have high hopes!
Still waiting on designs. There were some
bureaucratic problems with bank integrations, it
takes some time for accounts to be authorised an so on.
Some tasks took longer than we expected and we
lost some time on them. But everything still looks fine.
Nothing that might affect the deadline happened yet.

Lessons Learned
• Day 21
• I kept my notes to myself, I
had no proof.
• Day 22
• I did not test myself and
showed them
• I started to add new features,
without fixing bugs
• I did not calculate how much
time I would spend fixing bugs
Designs just came as PSDs! Seriously!? We expected them as
HTML! Customer insists that they notified us about PSDs and
we were OK. Liars! I remember, they said HTML, and that’s
how me made our plan. That was disappointing for us. I spent my
whole weekend on turning PSDs to HTMLs. I’m very tired now
and tomorrow we will make our first demo. Bank accounts are
opened but we still did not receive integration documents.
Demo was not well but as this was the first demo, it was expected
anyway. We made a list of bugs and we will fix them. It looks like, we
will spend some time to fix them. First month is about to be over
and we kinda late(ish) for the project. But we can still make it, I just
need to put a little bit more effort. This weekend I will be fixing those
bugs. Bank integration documents came very fast actually and we even
started to code them. We will be finishing them this week.

Lessons Learned
• Day 35
• I chose wrong communication
channels and it delayed me
• As I did not plan at all, I was
caught off guard when someone
important left (bus hit factor)
• Day 40
• I didn’t test, again
• I did not manage my “resources”
• I disputed with customer
Those banks… I’m trying to find the problems in their documents
through e-mails. Documents say you should do this, but guess what, that
doesn’t work. It turns out, it was a mistake and it cost us a week. We
required to change a lot of things. Damn those stupid software support! You
are not writing good documentation and you cost us time and money! The
guy who was writing the bank integrations took a vacation. He’s gone
for 2 weeks. 2 whole weeks… I was not able to fix the bugs yet. Even if
it’s buggy, I have to show a new demo, I will focus on banks now.
Customer was a bit mad for the demo. Bugs were not fixed after so
much time, etc, etc. I tried to tell them that the misunderstanding
about designs cost us a lot of time, but they did not get it. I also
tried to tell them that it was the problem with banks that caused
the delay for bug fixing. Customer told me that I was not alone, and
asked why others did not fixed those things. I was like, you know,
shocked. Stupefied. Seriously man, it’s always me who is working and
they just do nothing. I will make them work this week end.

Lessons Learned
• Day 55
• I kept going with my own
assumptions
• Day 60
• I didn’t make change management
• Day 80
• I kept going with my own
assumptions, stubbornly
• I denied possibility of failure(?) and
rejected the idea of not making on
time
After a stressful two week, I’m very very tired (and a bit smelly)
but we look like we finished a lot of things. Only a couple of simple
things left. There is still a month to go. We finished our end of
development. We solved problems with banks too! Yeah, unbelievable
right? We even implemented the design perfectly too. I’m pretty sure
the customer will be delighted. Once I fixed those smaller bugs too,
we will finish this project, earlier than expected. I’m tired but I
guess my promotion is on the horizon now. Totally worth it!
I can’t believe they did not told this earlier! Really?! How is it possible
that they didn’t say they want 3D Secure Payment! What is the
meaning of “we thought you would think”! I was so ready to wrap it up,
now I have to deal with this! It wasn’t something we discussed at all.
We have started to drown between things we thought they were simple.
Now things we didn’t discuss earlier started to come up as well.
It was important for them. There were more bugs than we anticipated.
We had some serious issues that we hadn’t noticed earlier, they will
take a lot of time.
Very though 2 weeks, but I think it’s OK now. I think we can
still make it in the last 10 days. We are lost in details
of tasks that we deemed simple. I’m so disappointed right
now. With a final push, I’m gonna finish this project and i will
take a loong vacation. I’m now really smelling, I need a good
bath but so tired, so stressed, I guess I will sleep now. Take a
shower, in the morning? Maybe 10 more minutes of sleep?

Lessons Learned
• Day 100
• I said project will be late, when
it was already late (I only had
one job anyway)
• Day 120
• It’s not over, when I say it’s
over
My boss who found out that project was late
was a bit made. Well, he is right. I told him after 3
months that I had more things to do. He found it
out yesterday, yelled at me and so on. He might even fire
me. My dreams for a promotion are evaporated right now.
And I also have this customer. Who will care if that
button move two pixels right, really??!!
Finally, we fixed all the bugs. They liked the demo as well, we even
move that button two pixels to the right. A month late, but at least it’s
over. It’s not so bad right? I mean, it could have been worse.
Tomorrow, there was some something called User Acceptance
Test, project had to pass test. Once we pass that too, we will gonna
get paid and time to move to new projects! But now I know,
customer doesn’t know what he/she wants. I will be careful
next time.

Lessons Learned
• Day 140
• I didn’t know what was sold
anyway in the beginning
• Day 170
• Project is over, not when
Customer accepts it but when
it’s discarded/thrown away
So, much, code. And, bad, code. I can’t even figure out why we did
somethings. Everyone has moved to other projects, and I’m all alone now
:( I’m still trying to write documentation. It turns out, our
salesperson has sold documentation as well but did not bother
to tell us. I’m not even mentioning user training that we should
provide to customers for three days. But documents are the last things,
once they are done, it’s over, for good now. I mean it. And I will
take a vacation, and I restarted to take regular showers too. Finally!!
I’m so glad that those lines are written from Bodrum my dear diary. Can you
believe it? Finally, I’m on that vacation, I told you about. It’s sunbath time!
Yesterday we finally finished the project but new change requests
are waiting. But now it’s on maintenance phase at least. We will get paid
for these changes and that’s a good thing. If I knew it was this stressful, I
wouldn’t accept being a project manager in the first place. Everyone was so
stressed, I was about to fight with the client in the last weeks, I barely hold
myself. But I like my job you know. I did that … web site! Now, I’m gonna take a
sip of my orange juice and look around for that “human” who is so beautiful.
Details, later my dear friend, later…

Questions
Thank You
Roy Buyuksimkesyan
roy.simkes@logsign.net
Questions

Diary of a Project Manager: How I screwed my last project?

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